The present invention relates to iron type golf club heads, and in particular to a set of iron type golf club heads having skid members formed on the sole at a specific angular position relationship to the club head's hosel and face loft.
When using an iron type golf club head for hitting a golf ball from a ground surface such as a fairway, heavy grass, hard or rocky ground, a sand trap or other naturally occurring ground areas, a descending blow is used in order to properly execute a shot. This causes a substantial portion of the club head sole to encounter resistance from the ground surface causing the club head to decelerate considerably and to have a tendency to torque or turn because of the resistance encountered.
Golf clubs of the known prior which use sole configurations to lessen contact of the sole with the ground surface include those shown to Scott U.S. Pat. No. 1,531,821, Stumpf U.S. Pat. No. 1,913,821, Golden U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,013, Sano U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,011, Gordos U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,133 and Crow U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,388. All of these golf clubs have relatively flat sole surfaces to which the runners are added thereby raising the entire club head including the leading edge of the club head, above the ground surface. This requires that the club be swung in a sweeping fashion in order to eliminate the bounce which would be encountered when the runners initially hit the ground surface. Whereas this arrangement works fairly well with wood type golf club heads, it becomes a disadvantage for iron type club heads which require the leading edge to penetrate the ground surface during the execution of a shot. For example, the patent to Crow, listed above, discloses a wood-type golf club head having runners which has wide spread use in the golfing community. As seen from his FIGS. 1 and 3, the bottom sole 18 and the corresponding leading edge 34 are raised above the ground surfaces by the height of the runner members 26 and 28. Providing this type of configuration on an iron would not permit the leading edge of the club head to properly get down below the ball in order for it to make proper contact on the ball striking face adjacent the center of percussion (CP). The resulting bounce would cause the club to strike the ball nearer the bottom of the club head resulting in an undesirable bladed or sculled shot which a golfer cannot control.